Firms are hesitant to replace their core processing system mainly due to the multi-year effort to migrate to a new system; those truly considering it would need to realize substantial cost savings. The current mantra in the industry is, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

The market for core brokerage processing systems used by US self-clearing broker dealers has shifted away from proprietary systems over the last 20 years, as today an estimated 75% of firms utilize a vendor supplied system. Despite the widespread adoption of vendor systems, firms almost unilaterally have no plans to replace their current processing system in the near future, according to an informal poll of 25 institutions using a vendor solution. Read More »

In Brief:  The influence of rewards for credit and debit cards peaked in 2009 when more than 65% of retail transactions came from cards linked to loyalty programs.  Loyalty programs met sudden death when top-tier issuers shut down debit points in reaction to revenue hits from regulatory price controls.  Today, less than 20% of issued cards have active programs aligned to them, yet high profile issuers still stumble with new fee assessments that will likely unravel the consumer benefits of Dodd-Frank.  Issuers must remember the importance that consumers place on value, both real and perceived.  Read More »

Among the steps in the trade lifecycle that will experience the greatest change are pretrade analysis, order management, trade execution, and post-trade functions. Driving these high levels of impact is the anticipated spike in data, owing to increases in transaction volumes, regulated reporting requirements, and stringent collateral posting obligations.  Read More »

Enabling a rich user experience requires more than a mobile, hand-held, or channel strategy. It requires strategic coordination of a broad range of technologies, users, and business processes. On the technology front, this is known as Unified Communications, or UC. Read More »

Bank of America, who manages more debit cards than any other US Bank, must reposition its strategy with Debit Card pricing.  Their large portfolio of debit cards linked to consumer checking accounts has been in a spin since 2Q2011, when revenue for the card business fell to $1.9 billion, down from $2.5 billion the prior year.  It was not just Dodd-Frank. An important factor for the revenue decrease preceded the price controls of the Dodd-Frank Act.  Recall the 2009 Federal Reserve Bank revision to Regulation E which severely limited the bank’s ability to assess bounced check fees; that change removed billions of fee revenue for the industry. Read More »

Improve Customer Experience by Reducing Effort

Customer experience was a critical focus for service organizations in 2010, and continues to be the top driver for insurance carrier contact center investment in 2011. Service-orientated insurance companies recognize that to mitigate disloyalty among customers, they must improve the customer experience by reducing customer effort. Results from a recent survey indicate that 96% of customers attribute their disloyalty to a high-effort experience with a service organization. Investment in contact center technology that reduces customer effort by enabling multi-channel service and proactive outreach by an insurance carrier is imperative. Read More »

The commercial cards business has recovered from the 2008-2009 dip in travel expenditures in North America and Europe, caused by the global financial crisis.  Global volumes continue to rise but are driven by varying dynamics around regional economic growth, market maturity and to some extent government driven priorities.  Read More »

We are still in the early stages of a new regulatory era categorized by more rules, greater supervision, and more stringent enforcement of regulations and procedures. The current nationwide anti-Wall Street protests are once again calling for more regulation of our industry’s activities. Read More »

The graveyard of international business expansion plans is filled with the notion that Europe is a single market. From a political perspective, it is unified—if you have the right to sell payment services in any European Union member state, you have the right to sell in all of them. And the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) appears to paper over some of the national differences. The actual use of these instruments, however, is marked by overwhelming differences. Read More »

The generic label “mortgage lending crisis” has caused some financial services institutions (FSIs) and IT suppliers to downgrade opportunities in the residential mortgage lending sector. Although new mortgage lending volume has declined and mortgage defaults have increased in many markets, others remain healthy and offer opportunities for FSIs to expand.  Read More »